Instrument control rooms are provided in a variety of different facilities such as nuclear power stations, oil refineries, and electric or fossil fuel generating plants. In such control rooms, instruments are mounted on the walls and must be monitored by operators sitting at a work station wired for control consoles or computer terminals.
Previous work stations such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,895, require posts of different shapes to accommodate the various shapes of the top surfaces which they support. The posts of U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,895 are either rectangular, to accommodate square angles or straight lines in the work station's top surface, or they have at least five sides to accommodate other angles in the top surface. The disadvantage of this and other prior art work stations is that a different shape of post is required for each different angle in the top surface supported by the posts in order to accommodate adjoining panels that are attached to the posts. The requirement of differently-shaped posts permits less flexibility in the design of work stations because all of the angles formed by the adjoining panels must be preselected so that posts can be made accordingly.
Therefore, there is a need for a solution of the problem of how to design an operator work station for an instrument control room in a manner so that the work station is aesthetically attractive, provides for ease of wiring with ease of access to wiring after installation, and having design versatility which permits ease of future modifications and use with top surfaces of different shapes.